BM hunter needs help to get more dps

Post by adseg2020

I am new to WOW, have only been playing about 6 months. I got my hunter to 80 and managed to get pretty good gear so far. My gear is good but my dps sucks and I would appreciate any help that is available for shot rotation, re-spec my BM, etc. to get my dps up. I plan to dual spec to SV when the new patch comes out but for now stick to BM. (I know probably a bad choice but I like BM and my dino) So any good dps talent trees for BM and Sv would be greatly appreciated along with a great shot rotation for each as I have no set rotation yet. I have gotten some good specs from the forum already but not sure what is the best one. This is my link to wow armory. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cho%27gall&n=Adseg I hope you all can help so I can perform better in raids pre-patch with BM and after the patch with SV.

Post by Seahawks

I had this saved in a text file for a friend of mine who was starting a hunter, I don't remember where I got it or I'd link the site. If anyone knows the source please let me know so I can give credit!

BM hunters have it easy in so many ways, and one of those ways is the BM shot rotation. The BM hunter shot rotation is the simplest and easiest of any hunter spec. But despite this, I do get emails from hunters trying to figure out why their dps is bad only to learn that they’re making their shot cycle way more complicated than it needs to be. So this guide will lay out the best BM hunter shot cycle to maximize the dps of your shot rotation.

To Begin With, Your PetBM hunters love their pets more than any other hunter spec. This is only natural as they are far more loving by nature. Before we get to the shot cycle, let’s address the pet:

The following pet abilities should all be on auto-cast: Cower, Rabid, Call of the Wild, Bite/Claw/Smack, and your pet’s special attack.

Don’t worry about trying to trigger them at the best moment — just leave it all on autocast to go off as soon as they’re available. Let the UI worry about the pet rotation so you can worry about your shot rotation.

Put Hunter’s Mark on target (usually before combat begins, or as part of a macro) Send pet in to attack Put up Serpent Sting (reapply to boss when it goes down) Shoot Arcane Shot Hit Steady Shot or Multi-Shot until Arcane is off cooldown And that’s all there is to it.

If there are 4 or more targets, send pet in and use Volley, otherwise, it’s Sting/Arcane Shot/Steady Shot. Arcane is much better than Steady Shot for the BM shot cycle because it costs the same amount, but since it’s magic it ignores armor. You’ll do a lot more damage with Arcane Shot.

The Multi-Shot FactorMulti-shot will do more damage than Steady Shot, even against one target. Thus to really pump out the most dps possible out of your shot rotation, include multi-shot in place of a Steady Shot whenever possible. Obviously you need to be aware of cc’d targets — never multi-shot when something is cc’d. If you break it, everyone’s death is your fault. You pay their repair bills.

Many hunters don’t like multi-shot because it costs more mana. This is undeniably true; however, BM hunters already have a very mana-efficient shot cycle with their rotation, and with full 25-man raid buffs you’ll probably never run out of mana. You can afford to multi-shot. It will increase your dps.

And That’s It!Now you have optimal BM hunter shot cycle for max dps against a single, stationary target. Life gets more interesting on running fights, but 90% of the time this is what you want to be doing.

Some hunters prefer to macro their shots together, and we fully support this at the WHU. However, we recommend leaving Serpent Sting out of your macro and making sure that is applied as needed manually. But if you want a macro for your shot cycle just use this:

Keep in mind this macro will only fire one shot each time you hit it. The first time it’ll fire off Arcane Shot, and the next three times it will fire off Steady Shot, then start over. If you don’t hit the macro button for a while it’ll reset itself back to the beginning.

Post by adseg2020

Thank you very much for the advice, I will definitely try the shot rotation right away. I greatly appreciate all your help.

Post by cdstephens

I looked at your spec, and I have a few tips.

For one, go for the throat in the MM talent tree is a must. Depending on your pet, you should invest one or two points into this. If it is a Devilsaur, which it should be (most dps at this point i think), only 1 point is necessary, because otherwise the pet would be wasting focus on refreshing a buff too soon.

Personally, I do not like aimed shot or arcane shot while raiding. Due to their high mana cost and cool down, they are preferred for pvp, not for sustained dps. So that one talent point in aimed shot and the three in arcane shot can be put somewhere else if you like.

Spirit bond is unnecessary, as the health gain is minimal at best, especially in comparison to the healing done by healers in your party.I also recommend getting cobra strikes, as it increases the dps of your pet. Since your pet as a BM hunter is a major source of your dps, this is important.

The five points in tier 1 of the MM talent tree should be put into lethal shots, not the other two talents. Lethal shots is the only talent in tier 1 that directly increases your dps.

Other than that the talent spec is pretty solid. You have lonevity, spirit bond, frenzy, improved hawk, aspect mastery, bestial wrath, and ferocious inspiration, which are all necessary. Any extra points diverted from the skills i mentioned can probably be diverted to either improved tracking or hawk eye. Improved huunter's mark could help too.

Note that this is all from just looking at the talents and looking at forums. I am still leveling my hunter, so if you have experienced different outcomes than I have predicted, then I cannot argue. Remember, dps is your top priority as a hunter. This also includes managing your mana consumption.

Post by dungaurd

Personally, I like exotic pets so i would say put a point into the end talent, probably taking it out of improved tracking. Feel free to mess around with the tree a little to suit your needs, but i wouldn't change it around too much.

Most of the gear pieces you have look decent for starting off, but some of the enchants need to be changed. For instance you have tanking enchants on your head and shoulders. Also the frost resist ring should be replaced by a dps one and the spell power trink needs to go too.

I would recommend regeming for hit to reach the cap without focused aim, as it does not give your pet hit.

The guide has info for gems and enchants and i would highly recomend you check it out.

Arcane shot now has the same mana cost as steady shot, so i would recomend using it whenever its off cooldown.

mana really shouldn't be to much of an issue thanks to raid buffs and invigoration.

Hope this helps you out

Post by Zakkhar

The following pet abilities should all be on auto-cast: Cower, Rabid, Call of the Wild, Bite/Claw/Smack, and your pet’s special attack.

No no and thousand times no, CotW never ever should be used outside Bestial Wrath.Cower is big waste of focus, if you manage your pet correctly there is no way you get agro, unless tank gets stunned/feared/mced (but again everybody will get agro in that case so its better for your pet to take a few hits than eg. the clothie healer).Never let anything decide for you when to use some skill with cd more than 20s. Timing everything correctly is crutial for proper Bm dps.

(...)And That’s It!

Really Sherlock? And where is Bestial Wrath in this rotation? Where is Kill command?

Macros with castsequence essentially kill any skill you can show while playing the class. Except a few very simple macros there is no way auto did something better than human, just because there are so many circumstances macro doesnt predict.

Post by Jeckt

The following pet abilities should all be on auto-cast: Cower, Rabid, Call of the Wild, Bite/Claw/Smack, and your pet’s special attack.

No no and thousand times no, CotW never ever should be used outside Bestial Wrath.Cower is big waste of focus, if you manage your pet correctly there is no way you get agro, unless tank gets stunned/feared/mced (but again everybody will get agro in that case so its better for your pet to take a few hits than eg. the clothie healer).Never let anything decide for you when to use some skill with cd more than 20s. Timing everything correctly is crutial for proper Bm dps.

(...)And That’s It!

Really Sherlock? And where is Bestial Wrath in this rotation? Where is Kill command?

Macros with castsequence essentially kill any skill you can show while playing the class. Except a few very simple macros there is no way auto did something better than human, just because there are so many circumstances macro doesnt predict.

While I agree with everything you say, the stuff Seahawks mentioned is a good starting point for a BM hunter who's dps does not correlate with gear level. While they may not give max DPS, the tips there would certainly provide an improvement.

Macro's shouldn't be necessary for BM hunter as the rotation really is very simple now, and, if you can pull it off, it's better to sync your cooldowns, for example having beastial wrath, rapid fire, kill command and a trinket all fired up will really amp up your DPS.

Post by Crassus

Cower is big waste of focus

A pet's Cower uses no focus, so your reasoning behind leaving it off is flawed.

Post by kylepaxoll

Hmm can't believe elitist jerks had BM spec with invigoration. In the optimal 25 man raid, you will never run out of mana. Granted the talents can help alot in 5 and 10 mans but those are so easy why bother specing for them. Take the 2 points from invigoration and put them in survival instincts for better dps.

Post by Wismer

yay Adseg! This is Kabbalah. If you got any questions regarding the advice you got, let me know in game. One of the first things you can do is to grind Rep for Sons of Hodir or Argent Crusade for the shoulder enchant/epic chestpiece. The major thing I see lacking is really just your +hit. Let me know if you need any enchant done as I am now maxed out.

Post by Zakkhar

Cower is big waste of focus

A pet's Cower uses no focus, so your reasoning behind leaving it off is flawed.Mistype. I meant dps. It certainly uses global cooldowns (pet has them too you know).

Post by Dawnfang

Personally, I like exotic pets so i would say put a point into the end talent, probably taking it out of improved tracking. Feel free to mess around with the tree a little to suit your needs, but i wouldn't change it around too much.

Most of the gear pieces you have look decent for starting off, but some of the enchants need to be changed. For instance you have tanking enchants on your head and shoulders. Also the frost resist ring should be replaced by a dps one and the spell power trink needs to go too.

I would recommend regeming for hit to reach the cap without focused aim, as it does not give your pet hit.

The guide has info for gems and enchants and i would highly recomend you check it out.

Arcane shot now has the same mana cost as steady shot, so i would recomend using it whenever its off cooldown.

mana really shouldn't be to much of an issue thanks to raid buffs and invigoration.

Hope this helps you out

Disregard this build, he needs beast mastery in order to tame exotic pets. And as far as I know, a devilsaur is an exotic pet. The best advice I can give you, coming from another hunter who has problems with dps is just create a macro that allows you to burst shoot, you know, let go of everything, just make sure to not use other stings, stick to serpent sting. And while not in battle, switch to AotV. That way it recharges your mana. Or stick purely to AotV, that way you can not worry about having to recharge your mana after every boss. :/ It sucks, and may reduce your damage altogether, but that's completely different from dps. Just remember that. Besides, serpent sting sees to it that you're making up for the damage regularly lost, by DoT.

Post by cdstephens

This is the best I can come up with until we recieve duel spec. Other then that, I hope it helped some.

Um, this link leads to a talent build with no points.

Personally, I recommend the build elitist jerks has, with a few tweaks. A point in beast mastery, no points in invigoration, some in either survival instincts or hawk eye whichever one you prefer, and maybe improved hunter's mark if you like. Really, its hard to go wrong with a hunter build. Just remember when picking talents that dps is your top priority, and when considering buffs, consider their necessity. If you think a buff is minor because it will be covered by other buffs in a raid, then don't get it. Otherwise, in the case of irreplaceable or outstanding buffs (bestial wrath comes to mind), get those.

Post by dungaurd

Disregard this build, he needs beast mastery in order to tame exotic pets. And as far as I know, a devilsaur is an exotic pet. The best advice I can give you, coming from another hunter who has problems with dps is just create a macro that allows you to burst shoot, you know, let go of everything, just make sure to not use other stings, stick to serpent sting. And while not in battle, switch to AotV. That way it recharges your mana. Or stick purely to AotV, that way you can not worry about having to recharge your mana after every boss. :/ It sucks, and may reduce your damage altogether, but that's completely different from dps. Just remember that. Besides, serpent sting sees to it that you're making up for the damage regularly lost, by DoT.

I did say in my post that he could take a point out of imp tracking and put it into beast mastery. And as for the rest of this post, stick to AotV for a whole fight? Um no. Stay out of AotV as much as you can. Pop a mana pot in a boss fight before you resort to viper.

I would also not recomend using a shot rotation macro, just know what shots are higher priority, and every gcd hit what you need to. Its much more flexible for fights where you have to move ect. Not every fight is patchwerk or a target dummy.

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